Guest Who: Most Wanted

See what I did there? The long-running series The F.B.I. was a Quinn Martin production and, as such, employed an array of guest stars in addition to the regular cast. I've been catching up with this rather buried program and felt the need to share some of the familiar faces who have popped up as I've been watching. Naturally, I couldn't fit in everyone, but I tried to pluck ones out that may be of particular interest for one reason or another. The star for all nine seasons was Efrem Zimbalist Jr., fresh off a decent run on 77 Sunset Strip. Each week found Zimbalist and his associates trying to track down various enemies of justice, be they kidnappers, extortionists, murderers, thieves, espionage agents or something else. His character reported to a supervisor played by Philip Abbott, though mention was frequently made of the real head of the F.B.I., a name you may have heard before -- J. Edgar Hoover! Real agents, from Hoover on down, served as advisors on the show, overseeing virtually every detail to ensure a level of authenticity in terms of procedure. These guests are chiefly from the first two seasons as that's pretty much as far as I've made it yet. All nine seasons may be seen in good condition on Tubi if you're so inclined.

Things got off to a rip-snorting start in the first episode when movie actor Jeffrey Hunter was cast as a compulsive strangler!

As far as I'm concerned, nothing with Jeffrey Hunter in it could ever truly go wrong. He was an underrated actor and a compellingly handsome one as well.

Also in the introductory ep was another favorite of mine, who I always enjoy seeing, the marvelous Miss Dina Merrill.

Get a load of the unusual hairstyle she sports here. Merrill most often could be seen in some version of a bob or pageboy, so it was fun to see this look.

Zimbalist found himself taken with her, too. (As we go along, take notice of the sets, too. So often they are appointed with all sorts of 1960s decor that can pop the eyes now.)

Them there eyes... The deranged Hunter likes to strangle women with their own long hair! And this teleplay asks us to believe that the hair on Dina's head is her own. So, she is in no small amount of danger.

Here we see her partially unfurled...

Not everyone got to play with falls and wigs. Do you recognize this lady? It's Brett Somers, later to score a hit on the game show Match Game '75! In her episode, she played the sister of a man who's run off with his son. The man is played by her own real-life husband Jack Klugman!

I personally do not prefer these sort of close-cropped hair on ladies, though some can pull it off better than others. This is a pretty unusual look for Miss Eileen Heckart. She's not in a car, by the way...

In this installment she's a lady pilot for her single scene! Check that steering wheel.

We were thrilled to come upon Mr. Burt Reynolds.

He plays a baddie who thinks nothing of stealing government property and killing people to obtain it.

He visits a young lady who's just given birth a short time ago...

...then kidnaps her at gunpoint and takes her outside in a wheelchair as he tries to spirit her away. 

The obvious confidence and swagger that would later make him a TV star and movie phenomenon was already present in his persona during this supporting role.

An infrequent display of skin occurs in this examination by Larry Gates of a young patient. Know him?

It's Beau Bridges in a young adult part. He was 24 at the time.

His earliest parts came through roles in his father Lloyd Bridges' projects, but he ultimately established a career all his own.

Here, he played an amnesiac who may or may not have been involved with a suitcase of stolen cash.

What a surprise to find the often-fascinating British actress Margaret Leighton in an episode.

She plays a wealthy Texan who is targeted by a man who weds rich women then kills them. Southern accents tend to be easier for British performers to emulate than the flatter Midwestern sounds.

The "black widower" was portrayed by James Daly, a three-time guest on the series.

Barbara Luna also made several guest appearances on The F.B.I.

Here she played the concerned girlfriend of injured criminal Earl Holliman.

The following season she was tangled up with dangerous Alejandro Rey.

Her hairdo wouldn't have been out of place on Star Trek, a show she also guest-starred on. There, I took the looks as "futuristic" but here they're seen without irony! It was just the mid-'60s in general.

This episode concerned a babysitter who up and runs off with the little girl she's been hired to watch!

The disturbed woman is played by Colleen Dewhurst.

In one of the hootiest moments of the series, she goes to visit her timid and quite petrified sister played by Collin Wilcox.

Wilcox sports one of the most atrociously godawful wigs that I can recall seeing outside of Marjorie Lord in the finale of Boy Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966.)

I'm not kidding.

The following season, she was back as a witness too scared to stay and testify. So she disguises herself and flees.

Thus, she dons another wig, this time a dark one. The piece is in a hat box, but the way this pic is framed it almost looks like it's jutting out the top of a garbage can! Ha ha!

An episode I enjoyed a lot, airline trauma fan that I am, had Arthur Hill hijacking a plane.

One stewardess was played by Jessica Walter.

The other one was Nancy Kovak, sporting a killer highlight job. I don't know why, but I associate these multi-toned strands more with the 1980s and expected "flatter" blonde locks on a gal at this time.

Somehow the way Kovak's looks come together; the strong features, heavy eye makeup and the frosty hair, she just always grabs my attention.

Here, they're tending to Walters' estranged boyfriend Jason Evers who had attempted to thwart the hijacker.

Walter returned in season two.

In that one, she was less virtuous and was wearing longer hair.

The always busy Walter wound up appearing six times in all on The F.B.I. She seen here with William Smithers, Joanne Linville and Louis Jourdan.

Dana Wynter did a lot of TV during this period. Here she plays the wife of a man trying to defect to the U.S.

She was rail thin at this point, too.

Jailbreak! The escapee here would soon go on to a major career in the movies.

Charles Bronson portrayed a truly menacing and unflinching criminal. Bronson had been acting on screen since the dawn of the 1950s and even had his own series Man with a Camera from 1958-1960, but had to wait the late-1960s before he was a cinematic leading man.

He's seen here menacing his own partner in crime, Tim McIntire. McIntire was a guest on this show six times, like Jessica Walter.

Do you recognize this fella?

Buck Taylor may not be a household name, but not long after this he settled in as a regular on the long-running Gunsmoke and ultimately emerged as a reliable figure in many westerns on TV and in the movies. Even I didn't know that he is the son of famous and wonderfully animated character actor Dub Taylor!

In this episode of The F.B.I., Taylor plays a miner and for a moment we see him with his shirt open. Little did I know that there'd be a brief follow-up.

At the climax, there is a cave-in and he's trying to save some trapped men, including his grandfather. We are treated to a not-too-frequent sight of him with his torso showing.

Who knew?!

Robert Duvall is another actor who did time on TV before vaulting into a successful movie career. He was on this series five times in all.

Here he played a mobster, foreshadowing his role in The Godfather (1972) and it's sequel.

What about these three menacing figures...! Prison sure has changed. Joseph Hoover, Joe Campanella and Martin E. Brooks are gunning for a new inmate.

Said inmate is an undercover Zimbalist with darkened hair and a fake scar on his face. 'Cause a scar done with makeup isn't going to come off at all while you're boarded in a prison...!

Ef's already brunette hair got the inky-black treatment here. And, while the scar isn't bad-looking, I can't see it surviving over the course of several days in the clink!

He's there to uncover Campanella's plot to stage an escape, but Campanella seems suspicious.

And his cohorts are ready to lend a hand, too. (Hoover, on the left, was pretty...! He doesn't appear to ever risen above brief parts on a variety of TV shows and the occasional movie.)

Zimbalist wants to fend them all off, but it's not going to be easy.

This scene began with Hoover turning on all the shower heads in the room and I was like, "YES!"

It soon became sadly clear that he was just doing it to muffle the noise and that no one was going to be shucking down.

The ensuing melee did make its way into the shower enclosure...

...but I guess there was no way they were going to present the scuffle as having taken place during shower time. It rendered the sequence rather silly.

I think I preferred Viggo Mortensen's ordeal in Eastern Promises (2007) better, even with the wince-inducing cuts from a blade.

Miss Diane Baker.

More often, we'd see Baker in a mostly straight, chin-length bob, so it was unusual to find her with this up-do.

Even if it was still somewhat business in the front, there was a party in the back!

Suzanne Pleshette also changed up her usual style for the show.

Around this period, she usually sported a tall, bouffant look.

Her role concerned a woman in love with a foreigner who is involved in some dangerous shenanigans.

Elizabeth Allen is a somewhat lesser-known actress, but she could be relied upon for plenty of disparaging looks and snarky remarks, which we of course love.

Here she was the unhappy wife of guest star Ralph Bellamy.

Some of her looks were streamlined and flattering, though I sure didn't go in much for the colorful dress in the inset, especially with that matching headband.

Ruth Roman looks concerned about her young charge.

Nevertheless, she's actually a Communist spy who's using her orphanage as a cover for her courier activities. 

She escorts one of her orphans to the U.S. and a new home there.

However, circumstances take an unfortunate turn.

One of the most significant "classic" movie star guests was Miss Gene Tierney. She'd been enjoying a comeback to screen acting in the wake of a serious and horrifying bout with depression.

She played one of several citizens being targeted for murder. (This was a season four episode - It actually was the one about which I recently posted with Kevin McCarthy in the steam room!)

The still trim and elegant Tierney was outfitted in several flattering outfits. 

Although still quite viable as a performer, she only did one more project, a TV-movie, after this before retiring, though she did pop up in 1980 for a role in the miniseries Scruples.

Next up is Peter Graves, not long before he joined Mission: Impossible in the iconic role of Jim Phelps.

It wouldn't be long before Graves' salt and pepper hair went practically white, which he left alone to great disinction.

A second-season two-parter was loaded with surprises. First there was the shot of this blond actor, who so resembles one of our faves, Grant Williams. But it was not he.

It's Gil Peterson! If you don't know, Peterson had a limited career full of bit parts, walk-ons and so forth for about a decade. However, he was also given the male lead in one corny, crazy, kooky movie musical -- 1967's The Cool Ones. Check it out!

he was very handsome and ought to have gone further. Anyway, in this scene, he's being coerced by an agent to trap his college roomie, Robert Drivas.

Drivas plays a young killer-for-hire. He's interested in a pretty nurse played by Susan Strasberg. (Drivas' aunt is also a nurse, played by Celeste Holm.)

We can all thank Jesus that these type of nurses headgear were but a brief "thing."

No, I really MEAN IT.

Holm is estranged from Drivas' uncle and you won't believe who it is! 

 I mean, were you ready for Celest Holm and Telly Savalas as a married couple?!

He's a mob heavy with no idea that his nephew Drivas is a hired killer.

Savalas, who'd done television along with the occasional movie since 1960, was about to embark on a period of substantial film work, either colorfully supporting or also starring at times. In 1973, he would return to the tube for his iconic role as Kojak.

Drivas had been featured in the first season of The F.B.I. as an unstable killer and eventual member of a militant group. He was usually good for some eye-catching bulge (as he was to a great extent in the later movie Where It's At, 1969, a must-see.)

Prior to joining the militant faction, he tries to enlist in the navy.

He is rejected, though. (I like the guy behind the partition, too!)

At the militant camp, he has on some fascinating sweat pants.

No, I really mean it. WTH?

I love vintage television...

Look who we have here.

Miss Karen Black, prior to her phenomenal run as a 1970s movie actress.

Seen here with multiple guest star, the aforementioned Tim McIntire, Black would later play chief stewardess Nancy Pryor in Airport 1975 with Efrem Zimbalist Jr as the badly injured pilot!

For his own part, McIntire - the son of very active character performers John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan - wound up battling drug and alcohol issues, wrecking what was a rather promising career. He died from heart failure at 41 in 1986 as a result.

Raise your hand if you thought you'd see Glen Campbell in this post! He's seen here in his acting debut with Anne Helm.

After also popping up with Gil Peterson in The Cool Ones, Campbell would costar with John Wayne in 1969's True Grit. After 1970's Norwood, he pretty much left acting behind in lieu of a highly successful music career.

Like many others in this post, James Franciscus, who'd recently ended his run as Mr. Novak, was about to make a leap to the big screen. He did have a couple of short-lived series later on, but for a time was a movie actor.

Franciscus was also, like a good many of the people in this post, part of my "Disaster Movie Club," an imaginary collection of performers who were featured in any big-screen disaster flick between 1970 & 1980. It's been a big part of the fun for me to see these folks pop up.

Franciscus' episode had him (along with Tige Andrews of The Mod Squad) pinning FBI agents down in a boarded-up house during a hurricane.

To this point, I haven't even touched on Zimbalist's costar for the first two seasons, a young man named Stephen Brooks. Brooks was low-key, but very nice-looking.

He is one of the agents holed up in the house during the hurricane. Injured, he's shirtless but for a bandage and it was a rare instance of us getting to see him this way.

In the episode after this one, he barely appeared and then he was let go from the show! They may as well have killed him off in dramatic fashion here. As it stood, he got no sort of proper send-off.

Brooks' career wasn't over. He had another series (The Interns) and even appeared on other Quinn Martin programs. He also had a stint of Days of Our Lives in the early-'80s. But his acting life petered out not long after and, sadly, he died of a heart attack at only 57 in 1999.

Brought on to replace him was near look-alike William Reynolds, who was with the show until it ended.

A guest in the early part of the third season was Joanna Moore. Freshly divorced from Ryan O'Neal, she was already the mother of their children, Griffin and Tatum. (She's a member of the DMC, too, for her later role in The Hindenburg, 1975!)

She played a cocktail waitress in the episode (and with that hair, she could have served up whisky at The Long Branch Saloon!)

Speaking of The Disaster Movie Club, it was interesting to find these assorted folks in guest roles on The F.B.I., too: 

I don't think faithful visitors to this blog will have to struggle much with what it is they all have in common! Just in case, though:

I'll wind up this installment of Guest Who with a bit more on Mr. Zimbalist Jr. As a key FBI agent, he was more often than not all buttoned up in a suit.

Every so often, though, he'd be sent out in the field undercover, as in this case. His dungarees afforded a better view than those suit pants.

"Do you see what I see...?"

In all truthfulness, one of his most underrated features were his lean, tan, shapely legs! They couldn't be caught here in their full appeal, but they were nice.

Zimbalist was a very good tennis player in his real life.

But back to the subject at hand.

We began to look forward to him leaving his suit back at the hotel.

I'll end with what I felt was the most clear example.

Meet Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Junior! Ha ha!

Until next time, case closed!